Journal Archives

I mean the legacy is whatever happens, James K. Polk wasn't trying to make somebody write a song about him. I think the legacy is that modern US presidents will be remembered as the PR wing of the actual government which dutifully functions with or without an elite reality show contestant going through the motions of running this too-big-to-fail apparatus.

The Thing already passed (happy news-dump Friday!), the only remaining question is which contortions, er, concessions will justify passage of a bill next week. It'll be a really close vote, say 216-213, so all the actors are wearing the right masks for the aw-shucks part afterwards, and we'll be encouraged to channel our energy towards defeating those darn DINO dems who pop up like Whack-A-Mole wherever serious woodchuck issues are at stake, and the right can blow off steam by electing Teabaggers who promise to catch that rascally rabbit once and for all. And yet, no matter whom we elect, there's a permanent majority in support of a permanent regime, only they trade masks at the last second to belabor this reality TV democra-theatre.

“It’s been a traditional perception that African-Americans are a monolithic community and <the Clintons> took that tack in 2007 and 2008,” says former state Rep. Bakari Sellers, an enthusiastic Hillary 2016 supporter who backed Obama against Clinton during her last campaign in the Palmetto State. “They realized their mistake during the primary, but it was too late by that time.<..>

But Clinton is no longer resting her candidacy on the delegate count. She hopes to persuade party leaders, who hold the balance of power, that she would be the more electable candidate against McCain, based on her support among white, blue-collar voters who have not embraced Obama's candidacy in the same way as black, more affluent and better-educated voters.

West Virginia's demographics closely matched Clinton's political base. Interviews with voters leaving polling places showed an electorate that was 95% white, less educated and poorer than in most other states. Four in 10 were over age 60, and a little more than half came from rural areas.

Their LinkedIn skills include "Race Relations" and "Strategic Communication":

Strategic communication can also be used for political warfare. <...>

In the August 2008 paper, DoD Principles of Strategic Communication, Robert T. Hastings, Jr., acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, described strategic communication as "the synchronization of images, actions and words to achieve a desired effect."

Strategic Communication (SC) provides a conceptual umbrella that enables organizations to integrate their disparate messaging efforts. It allows them to create and distribute communications that, while different in style and purpose, have an inner coherence. This consistency can, in some instances, foster an echo chamber that reinforces the organizational message and brand. At minimum, it prevents contradictory, confusing messaging to different groups across all media platforms.

These actions will be reprimanded forthwith! But, yeah, if money is speech, I don't see how the government can deprive GM's personhood of its inalienable speech-units, unless the money itself is guilty like in civil forfeiture cases, but I think only natural-person money can be seized without due process, incorporeal-people's money is sort of a free agent since there's no sense in slapping the wrist of the invisible hand.

If I understand what little I know about the Senate, the result was going to be 62-38 or 61-39 regardless, it's mainly a question of which team players needed to bring home the blue-flavored bacon for their perceived constituents. I mean, OK, maybe it's really like TV and there's a guy whipping votes up until the midnight hour, but I feel like there's a permanent middle-way caucus that basically writes all the laws, and the Sanders-es and his reactionary counterparts can choose to appear however they want to appear without upsetting the natural order.

You're always going on about my wife the Wall St. lawyer and, uh...? Opensecrets.org? Y'all have good taste in venal politicians, I'll concede, and I can't imagine you're buying much influence at the Bronze rate, but I imagine it means you can make a few phone calls, maybe bend the rules a little when you're (not personally) advising Goldman Sachs and their ilk on "cross-border withholding tax and reporting issues". The part I don't get is why you brag about it on DU like a James Bond villain... shouldn't there be an army of minions? (I mean, duh, but still...) I know DU means fuck-all in the world of politics, since you keep reminding us, but what do you get out of this then? Feeling superior to the schmucks who think politics is up for debate?

Speaking of expressions that make white folk cringe. How about The Trapper-Keeper of Shame? I think it's more like a guardian angel who twitches her nose to bewitch police officers and make higher-paying job opportunities appear. I guess the framing problem is that the empowered class in question can't really lose their "privilege" without that 80s Eddie Murphy movie plot, so it isn't perceived as "constructive criticism", and anyway the problem isn't privilege, it's that everyone doesn't have equal access to it. (Or maybe that's what privilege means. I like this one, "White Myopia")

OK, I dunno about "official" (or "strategy"), but I predict we'll see out-and-out misogynistic attacks on Warren by Team Clinton soon (something like "We need Warren to stay in the Senate and attend to her little pocketbook issues, because Hillary's the only woman who's fully internalized* the misogyny needed to win campaigns!"), not unlike the "hard-working...white Americans" stuff when that was expedient. My theory is they're still jealous of the Obama campaign (G.Ferraro: “Any time you say anything to anybody about the Obama campaign, it immediately becomes a racist attack”), and they still think he won on account of "black privilege" ("He happens to be very lucky to be who he is" -GF), not because he did and said the right things or offered a less bleak view of humanity than the Clintonistas.

* They try to escape by identifying with the oppressor, living through him, gaining status and identity from his ego, his power, his accomplishments. And by not identifying with other “empty vessels” like themselves.